Among the 55 concubines of Kangxi, Huifei is a very unique one, she is of high status and was included in the harem very early, but this woman did not live long, and died around the age of 13, but she still became the head of the Kangxi concubines.
Image of Princess Kei
In the harem in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, there was a unique phenomenon called waiting in the palace. The so-called palace to stay in the year refers to those young concubines, who are not yet old enough to be served and canonized, and are taken to the palace to be raised, equivalent to the royal child bridesmaids, such as the mourning concubines of the Shunzhi harem. Concubine Kangxi also belonged to the palace to stay in the year.
Princess Hui had a very noble origin, her ancestor was Kong Guoer, the king of Bingtu County, Horqin, Mongolia, and her father was the third-class Taiji Ayuxi, who was a cousin of Empress Xiaozhuang, so Princess Hui was the niece of Empress Xiaozhuang, that is, the cousin of Kangxi. The "Great View of the Wild History of the Qing Dynasty" has the story of Kangxi Nagu as a concubine, which is likely to be derived from the matter of Hui Concubine.
Portrait of the Kangxi Emperor
In the early years of the Kangxi Dynasty, the ministers of the imperial government were concentrated in the hands of the four auxiliary ministers, and later there was a situation of dictatorship in Aobai, and in view of this, Empress Xiaozhuang judged the situation and broke the tradition that the empress must come from Mongolia, and referred to the granddaughter of the first assistant Sony, Hesheli, as the empress. However, the Horqin clan and the Qing dynasty royal family were married for generations, and Empress Xiaozhuang still wanted to maintain the glory of the Horqin clan in the Qing Dynasty royal family, so she added the niece of the Horqin family to the palace, and this Borzigit clan was the Hui concubine.
As for when HuiFei entered the harem of the Qing Dynasty, it is not known, the history books do not record, it is estimated that after the kangxi four years of Kangxi's great marriage, Huifei, who was not yet ten years old, was taken to the palace to raise, at that time, the Qing Dynasty concubine system was not perfect, under the empress, there were Fu Jin, special Gege, Xiao Fujin and Gege, huifei's rank was Fujin, that is to say, Huifei's status was second only to the Empress of the Middle Palace, which was relatively high.
Kangxi Concubines are sorted
But God made a joke with her, and she died at a young age, which had to be said to be a huge regret. At that time, Kangxi's Jingling tomb had not yet been built, and the coffin of Huifei had to be temporarily placed in the funeral palace until the twentieth year of Kangxi, when the Kangxi Jingling Tomb was completed, huifei was buried in the concubine garden, and Huifei was the first concubine of Kangxi to be buried in the concubine's garden, so the concubine's bed at that time was called Huifei's garden.
Floor plan of Jingling Concubine Garden
According to the Qing Palace's "Yellow Book of the Sacred Appearance of the ShouHuang Palace", among the Kangxi concubines, only eight people left portraits, and the portrait of Yongzheng's biological mother Empress Xiaogongren only appeared in the Yongzheng Dynasty, so there were only seven portraits of the concubines that the Kangxi Dynasty really preserved, and Huifei was one of them. According to the "Rules and Regulations of the Qing Dynasty", in the ranking of the Kangxi Concubines, Huifei ranked first among the concubines, and after Wen Xian's concubines, it can also be seen that she has a higher status.
It is worth mentioning that although Princess Hui died earlier, Kangxi still gave this cousin enough face and did not go to the court for three days, of course, this also has a lot to do with Princess Hui's noble origin.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Yellow Book of the Sacred Appearance of the ShouHuangDian, Statutes of the Great Qing Dynasty